Transcribed excerpt from undated New York Tribune article

N. Y. Tribune: "The weakness of Riley was, and is, a prime weakness of American thought. He wrote not the truth of life but a practical [sweetened] version of it, suffused with easy conventional emotion. Such things as doubt, ugliness of sin not only have scant place in such writing, even by way of artistic contrast; they have in share in the molding of the goodness which is upheld before us. It the truth that alone makes any people free. Therefore noble things that Riley wrote of would have been far finer, far nobler, had they touched life and reality rather than conventional tear-ducts."

Click tabs to swap between content that is broken into logical sections.

This item is owned by the Indiana State Library. Permission to publish or reproduce this item is required and must be obtained from the Manuscripts Section, Indiana State Library. Please call 317-232-3671 for more information.

N. Y. Tribune: "The weakness of Riley was, and is, a prime weakness of American thought. He wrote not the truth of life but a practical [sweetened] version of it, suffused with easy conventional emotion. Such things as doubt, ugliness of sin not only have scant place in such writing, even by way of artistic contrast; they have in share in the molding of the goodness which is upheld before us. It the truth that alone makes any people free. Therefore noble things that Riley wrote of would have been far finer, far nobler, had they touched life and reality rather than conventional tear-ducts."